


this too shall pass (i couldn't know what's in your mind)

by shesthesmoke



Series: you can always find me where the skies are blue [1]
Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: M/M, a fic that features a song, a lil angsty maybe, and then they have a convo afterwards, carina's not the only one around here with stupid ideas, forrest gives a half assed performance at planet 7 and now kyle is a whole ass fan, im a simple woman i see blue hair i project all my gay little feelings, is this a songfic? it might be, it's not a proper songfic it's like sort of almost a songfic, planet 7 is closer to the long farm than it is to wherever kyle lives i just decided, some looooooooong sentences holy shit, that song being gale song by the lumineers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-05-19
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:47:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24266872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shesthesmoke/pseuds/shesthesmoke
Summary: Some guy at one of the tables in the back pipes up. “Is that a cover?”“Uh… yeah,” Forrest calls back.“Do you want to use my phone to google the lyrics?” The guy offers, walking towards the makeshift stage area.title from Gale Song by the Lumineers
Relationships: Alex Manes & Kyle Valenti, Forrest Long & Alex Manes, Forrest Long/Kyle Valenti, Michael Guerin/Alex Manes, it's forrestkyle, mentioned:
Series: you can always find me where the skies are blue [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1771966
Comments: 8
Kudos: 31





	this too shall pass (i couldn't know what's in your mind)

**Author's Note:**

> first off, this is deadass my first fic in two years. i didn’t think i cared enough about this show to write a fic but apparently i care enough about this stupid idea i had so here it goes. since i apparently came up with this i get to pick the ship name and i’m picking forrestkyle. also i’m writing this right after watching 2.10 in which forrest said he doesn’t do music but i’m deciding that’s bullshit it’s not canon. alex isn’t in this but he wasn’t kidnapped either that’s also bullshit not canon. i don’t like where malex is going but they need to be together for this to make sense so they are.
> 
> edit 5.19.20: apparently forrest is wyatt + kate's cousin i thought he was their brother oops. idk if that has any actual bearing on this fic and i'm too lazy to go check. he also apparently didn't grow up in roswell which definitely contradicts this fic but whatever. suspension of disbelief.

Planet 7 doesn’t really do open mics like the Wild Pony but it’s almost one and there are maybe six people here and the manager likes Forrest well enough, always has. As much as he was telling Alex the truth about it being fun pissing off the homophobic locals, the words in his notebook on the stool beside him that he’s too nervous to sit on are a little more vulnerable than he’d take the chance of any of them hearing.

He shouldn’t need the notebook. The words were in his head long before he wrote them down. He’d even waited longer than normal, because writing something down makes it real and sometimes making it real makes it hurt. He gave up on waiting when he realized it already hurt anyway. The upside of writing it down is once you make something real you can finally start to deal with it.

It’s not even about Alex. Alex and Guerin finally got their shit figured out, and that’s a good thing, and they’ve known each other forever so Forrest didn’t really have a chance to begin with. The song is about stupid fucking towns and stupid fucking families and how sometimes they take away things that you wouldn’t have given a shit about either way and sometimes they take away things that were just starting to look like they could’ve been really, really good. So it’s a little bit about being in the Wild Pony with Alex at the end of their first date. But that conversation didn’t create that situation, it just… helped Forrest hone in on what he wanted to say about it.

He’s not saying anything right now. He’s just up there with his old guitar, two weeks back from a far too long hiatus. That’s not helping his nerves. He whispers a sorry into the mic but it’s not like anyone is listening or, to be completely honest, cares.

He can’t do this.

Can’t sing his song, at least. There are a couple things he definitely can do. He can leave. He can go get another drink and then come back and try this again. He can calm the hell down. All wonderful options.

Instead, he looks down at his hands, which seem to have started plucking out something without his permission. He lets them continue until he remembers the name of the song and some of the lyrics. It’s from the fucking Hunger Games soundtrack. He starts to sing because there isn’t really anything else to do.

“And oh this too shall pass… this loneliness won’t last… for long…” And that’s where his knowledge of the lyrics ends. Fuck.

Some guy at one of the tables in the back pipes up. “Is that a cover?”

“Uh… yeah,” Forrest calls back.

“Do you want to use my phone to google the lyrics?” The guy offers, walking towards the makeshift stage area.

“Uh…” what the hell? “Thanks, but I’m good. I’m just gonna… go.” Forrest takes his guitar and picks up his notebook.

The guy doesn’t really move to stop him, but the look of disappointment on his face is almost enough. “Your voice is amazing. Seriously, though, what’s the name of the song? I wanna listen to it later.” He’s got glitter all down one side of his face. He probably got it from the guy who came in here a couple of hours ago with a bunch of the stuff and gave it away to anyone who wanted it, but it looked like everyone who had been there when that happened had already left with someone else. Which begged the question, why not this guy? To make matters worse, Forrest is absolutely positively sure he’s at least seen this guy around, but the name is completely escaping him, something that points to him being less sober than standing behind a mic woefully unprepared for and terrified of what he was trying to express made him feel.

“I’m Kyle, by the way.”

Of course. Valenti, surgical resident, sheriff’s son. Friends with Liz Ortecho and therefore probably Alex too. Lovely. That might be a little too much to know about someone he’s never met, but he deals with people the same way he deals with History. He’s always had this inner need to piece together the little details.

“Forrest Long.” He can see his last name giving Kyle pause, which would be a shame because Kyle is cute and also possibly the most earnest person Forrest has ever met in Roswell. Well, maybe besides… nope, Kyle. He’s talking to Kyle and definitely not thinking about anyone else. “Oh, and, uh… I was singing Gale Song, by The Lumineers.” Kyle actually pulls out his phone right there, looks the song up, and saves it. Then he gives Forrest a small smile.

“Hey! You two!” the bartender yells, “everyone else left so I’m closing early. Wrap it up, maybe?”

“It’s a nice night,” Forrest comments, “wanna head outside?” Kyle nods.

~

They sit in the bed of Forrest’s truck and talk in ten minute walls of information about things they’re passionate about (Lyudmila Pavlichenko for Forrest and Laparoscopies for Kyle) which then devolves into just making shit up to try and make each other laugh which then devolves into just laughing.

“Why are you so into history?” Kyle asks after a beat.

Forrest shrugs. “I mean, I grew up coming here every summer. This town has nothing but history.”

“I disagree,” Kyle says. “It’s got… like… people.”

“Very astute observation. I guess… I wanted to find something that would let me deal with other people without actually having to, like, deal with them, you know? I used to get a lot of shit.”

Kyle gets quiet. “I… used to be like that.”

“You used to get bullied?”

Kyle shakes his head. “No, I, uh… I used to bully. One kid in particular. Our dads were best friends, and then we were best friends, and then… ninth grade, I wanted to fit in and he didn’t. That’s what I told myself for years, but the truth is… he liked guys, and I liked guys, and I couldn’t tell anyone. My family was awesome, I had more friends than he did, and I was just… scared. It was like everything was stacked against him, but it couldn’t shake him. I think… I wanted to be like him, but I didn’t know how to do that so instead I tried to make him like me. Ashamed.”

That’s not anything Forrest would’ve expected. He can understand it, sure. Shame makes people do fucked up things, especially kids. And Kyle does seem genuinely sorry. “Are you still in touch?”

Kyle nods. “I don’t know if we’re friends, but I’d like to be. He’s gotta be the strongest dude I’ve ever met.”

The sun is coming up and Forrest is falling asleep. It’s unlikely that either of them are safe to drive, so he calls a rideshare. They get to the Long farm first and Kyle gets out too. “Listen, Forrest,” he says. Forrest turns back around as Kyle gets closer until he’s right there. “I’m trying to be braver than I was in high school.” With that, he puts a hand on the side of Forrest’s face and kisses him slowly.

Forrest finds himself smiling into the kiss. When Kyle pulls away, he asks, “wanna come inside?”


End file.
